Taken
by clarawithfitzsimmonsin221b
Summary: A kidnapping rocks the foundation of the team on the Bus. Why was she taken? Where is she? Who took her? And how do they get her back?
1. Chapter 1

Simmons bent her head over the microscope, studying the substance Ward had brought her from the latest opp. She adjusted the lens and carefully added a few more strokes to her sketch. The team had been on a wild ride, surprisingly involving pizza crust, barbed wire, and a travel pillow, to retrieve the material now under examination. They had ended up thanking the stars for the Skye and her tech skills again, _but will there ever be a time when we aren't? _Simmons smiled and shook her head a little. The light had been fading from the lab rapidly and Fitz had left a while ago, but Jemma was still surprised to find herself stifling a yawn. A glance at the clock shocked her back into reality-_its nearly one in the morning, no wonder I'm tired. _The mystery purple substance had encapsulated her attention for over six hours. _But how could it not?_ It wasn't very hard for her to get in a zone when she was exploring a new subject. She had a knack for getting engrossed in her work and the new material had all sorts of unknown properties that were just begging to be discovered. She felt a small twinge of guilt-she had probably been horrible company for the last few hours Fitz was down here. She scooped up her sample and tucked it in the lab fridge, slipping the rinsed out test tube onto a drying rack. Even in the early morning darkness the lab was a comforting familiar setting for Jemma, bringing back forgotten memories from her and Fitz's time at the Academy, like the time they built a fully functioning sonic screwdriver, or when they used a monkey to help with an experiment and it escaped the lab. A cheesy grin had crept across her face. They sure had had a great run at S.H.I.E.L.D. Hogwarts. Simmons was reminiscing and coiling up the microscope cord when she heard a muffled thump by the loading ramp. _I thought everyone was asleep_. Her heart beat went jagged, but she focused on keeping herself calm. It was probably just May or Ward having trouble sleeping. _C'mon Simmons, get a grip._ She returned the microscope to its proper spot when a red gleam caught her eye. Simmons wrapped her hand around the handle of the fire extinguisher and stepped toward the door, taking as normal steps as possible. The lab door whispered open and she flicked off the light.

"Hello Jemma."

She swung her chosen weapon and everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

Fitz stirred in his bunk. He blinked and rolled over to see a dim light coming from downstairs._ Is Simmons still in the lab?_ He rolled his eyes a little bit._ She really can't function without homework, can she?_ But then he smiled and reminded himself _but that's why you love her so much._ He swung himself out of bed and padded over to their small kitchen. _I'll just bring her some hot cocoa._ A few minutes later, two mugs in hand, he proceeded down the spiral staircase. He fully expected to se Simmons bent over her notes, not looking tired at all. But when he stepped off the last step and looked through the glass doors he saw...nothing. The lab was completely empty. Frowning, he called,

"Simmons?" Even at a low volume the sound echoed around the empty space. He was totally alone. Fitz took a few cautious steps closer to the lab door, when he saw the fire extinguisher. It was just barely dented, but it had obviously been dropped, which meant Simmons had been holding it._ And she doesn't do that unless...NO!_ The word was a scream in his head. Both mugs fell from his grasp and shattered, sending hot cocoa all over the floor and Fitz cried out again, this time out loud, a noise of horrible, pure anguish. It was as though an alarm had sounded as the sound of Fitz's grief and pain spread through the entire Bus. Skye was the first one to come running to the lower deck, wearing sweats and a tank top, her hair tousled. Ward, May, and Coulson were right on her tail.

"What is it Fitz?" Skye had a fearful look on her face and her tone said that she knew only one thing could cause Fitz such agony.

"Simmons...she's gone..." He was down on his knees, curled up with tears pouring down his face, soaking into his t-shirt and pooling on the ground. Skye ran forward and pulled him into her arms, holding him tight as the sobs wracked his body. Even as Skye comforted Fitz tears were falling from her own face, her own arms shaking as she tried to be strong for Fitz.

"What do you mean 'gone'?" asked Coulson uncomprehendingly.

"Sir." Ward was quiet and when Coulson looked up Ward was standing by the fire extinguisher.

"Who...who would take her?" Fitz struggled to get the words out, looking up at Coulson like a lost child.

"The more important question is: where is she?" May spoke for the first time.

"But the most important question," Skye too looked up at Coulson, "is how are we going to get her back?"

"We don't know where they took her," Ward had a look on his face that the team knew well, the one that said he was blaming himself. "What can we do?"

Coulson looked him dead on and said, "Whatever it takes."


	3. Chapter 3

_Ow. _Jemma winced when she opened her eyes for the first time since the night in the lab. Her head was throbbing and her wrists were chaffed from the cuffs her captors had put on her. Her throat felt parched. She twisted to the side and a small groan escaped her lips. A piece of plastic worked its way in between her lips and Jemma blessedly felt water trickle into her mouth.

"It's easier if you don't move for a while," Jemma turned her head just enough to be able to see another girl. She was holding a bottle with a straw coming out of it, which Jemma realized was what was giving her water. She refocused her vision on the girl. She seemed to be about Jemma's age, maybe a year younger. She had caramel-colored, shoulder length hair that was in curls so perfectly messy that they had to be natural. Her eyes were a striking dark green, like a pine tree. A smattering of freckles was sprayed across the bridge of her nose. She was dressed in a pair of dark skinny jeans and black boots that came to just below her kneecap. She was wearing a form fitting black tank top and an olive green cargo jacket. Jemma struggled to push herself into a sitting position.

"What part of 'it's easier if you don't move' didn't you hear?" The girl sounded exhausted, as if Jemma wasn't the first captive she'd had to deal with. _When you think about it, I'm probably not._ Drawing on her inner-Skye, Jemma summoned a glare and said,

"I understood all of it. Now help me up." The girl looked surprised. She lifted Jemma so that her back was leaning against the wall, then said,

"Impressive. Most people aren't coherent when they first wake up after a shot of the serum," she sat down on the edge of Jemma's bed, "my name's Louise by the way."

"Jemma," said Jemma, wincing because it had been so long since she introduced herself as Jemma and not Fitzsimmons, "How long have you been in here?"

"About a month," Louise looked positively miserable, "they took me from my lab at college-I was up late working on this big project and next thing I know I'm waking up here in this room." Jemma frowned and pushed herself into a sitting position, despite Louise's warnings.

"Who is they?" She asked warily. Louise sighed.

"From what I've been able to gather they're some kind of science driven terrorist group. They've been working on ways to achieve mass terror acts without attracting notice by importing large amounts of weaponry. They call themselves The Mind." Jemma snorted.

"That's very original and interesting," she scoffed, "so what, they want us to help them with their chemical madness or something?"

"Actually Miss Simmons, that is exactly what we want."

Skye was sweaty and sore, but she didn't care. For once, she had the minimal training space on the Bus to herself. She channeled her anger, exposing it only in the tight punches and kicks that she was subjecting their punching bag to. She beat herself into exhaustion and still kept going until her vision blurred and she realized tears were mingling with the sweat on her face. She slumped down and landed in a heap in the floor, wrapping her arms around her middle in an attempt to hold herself together while the sobs wracked her body. She hadn't been lying there for long when she heard a voice from above her.

"Here," Skye looked up through her tears to see May standing there, holding out a bottle of cold water. Skye took it from her but didn't open it.

"Thanks," she said, resting her forehead against the icy condensation. May slid down next to her on the wall and Skye sent her a surprised look. She had never felt particularly close to the stoic assassin and May didn't really seem like the comforting type.

"It doesn't really help that much," said May. Skye shot her a confused glance.

"You think that beating yourself physically unconscious is going to make the pain go away, but it won't. Trust me," she spoke quietly. Skye watched her, both fascinated and wary of the horror and pain lurking in May's eyes.

"I don't know what else to do," Skye managed to choke out, "I have to do something."

"I know," May looked sideways at Skye, "but this won't help get her back."

"What the hell am I supposed to do then?" Skye shook her head, "all I'm good for is some typing skills I taught myself in the back of a van. Fat lot of good that's doing me now," she muttered.

"Don't," May was deadly serious, "don't discount yourself Skye. Do you think for one second that if you were useless you would have survived more than a day on this Bus?" Skye shook her head. May watched her closely.

"I've been there Skye, believe me. But no one, not a single person, is useless. You might not see it now, but there's always a reason you're here." Skye sort of smiled and said,

"That sounds like something Coulson would say." May looked her dead on.

"That's because he did."

Coulson ground his teeth together in frustration.

"Hill, I don't give a damn what protocol says. I have an agent missing, kidnapped from our plane!" He took an angry breath, "I want to know who took her and how they got on my plane without any of us knowing it!" He listened to Maria Hill on the other end of the phone line.

"Just get me some people working in it, Maria." Coulson snapped the phone shut and ran his hand over his head. He stood up and began pacing around his office. It was obvious that whoever took Jemma wanted her alive, and presumably she was wanted for her knowledge. Coulson allowed himself a small smile. _Guess they don't know much about Jemma Simmons. She knows twice as much when she's in the same room as Leopold Fitz. _He lapsed back into worry, thinking about the young agent who was down in the lab. They had left Ward with him as a precaution, but Coulson was fairly certain that the kidnappers weren't coming back. He knew Fitz wasn't doing well, hell with the reactions of the rest of the team he was surprised that Fitz was still functioning. _He's tougher than we give him credit for. _Coulson wracked his brain, trying to come up with something, _anything_ that might lead them to Jemma. All of a sudden his face lit up and he rushed out of his office, heading for the lab.


	4. Chapter 4

Jemma blinked into the sudden whiteness when the bag that had been placed over her head was removed. Staring around, she found herself in a lab. Normally, she would automatically relax in this familiar setting, but today she just tensed up more, especially since she didn't have Fitz with her. _But that's a good thing, _she reminded herself, _since if Fitz was here, it would mean that he was taken too._ She tried her best to calm her racing heart with a few deep breaths. She had managed to lower it a few beats per second when a tall, dark figure walked into the lab.

"Hello Jemma." His voice was low and alluring; if Jemma hadn't known that he was evil she might have been drawn in by it. Given her situation however, she merely glared, trying to act like she knew Skye or May surely would.

"Don't call me that."

"Isn't that your name?" asked the man innocently.

"I go by Simmons," replied Jemma coolly.

"Well then Simmons," said the man, his eyes hardening, "We have a little project for you."

"And what makes you think that I'm just going to cooperate?"

"Because if you don't we'll kill the nice young woman that you just made friends with downstairs." There was no wavering in the man's eyes as he spoke. Jemma felt an involuntary shiver run down her spine and a nervous sweat broke out on her palms, fear for her new friend racing through her veins. _I can't just let her die_.

"What do you want me to do?"

* * *

Coulson walked into the lab with purpose in his stride, Skye trailing along behind him, having noticed the determined look on his face and quickly followed him. She was still holding her laptop, continuing whatever search she had begun into some high-security database while also walking. Fitz and Ward looked up as the pair entered the lab.

"News, sir?" asked Ward immediately.

"Not exactly," said Coulson, "but I have an idea. Have you looked over what Jemma was working on the night she was taken?" he asked Fitz. Fitz shook his head.

"I'm not sure what she was looking at…I went to bed long before she was done." They could all hear the guilt in his voice, but they chose to ignore it for the moment.

"Did you check the log?" asked Skye, not even looking up from her laptop, "Simmons is obsessive about logging her progress and if she finished before they nabbed her, then we'll know."

"Good point," muttered Fitz, quickly stepping over and tapping a few commands into the computer to bring the log up. "Ummm…..it looks like she was analyzing that purple goo that you lot brought in," said Fitz.

"Does it say anything about what it is or something like that?" Coulson felt as though he was grasping at straws.

"She seems to have determined that is has healing properties," Fitz told him, scanning the rest of Simmons' write up, "It appears that she thought the healing 'genes' in the substance could be amplified with the right process in order to enhance an individual; like whoever was developing this stuff was trying to-"

"Recreate the super soldier serum," finished Coulson.

"Honestly, can't these evil alien pod groups come up with something original once in a while?" asked Skye, who was now sitting crisscross in one of the chairs, fingers flying ferociously across the keyboard.

"What are you even doing Skye?" Ward finally asked her the question he had been wondering for a while now.

"Looking for this," said Skye, hitting the return button one final time and spinning the laptop around. Coulson looked closer at the screen and saw three pictures of young women. The first had jet-black, chin-length hair and piercing blue eyes with well-defined cheekbones. The second was a ginger with hair long enough to extend down beyond the boundary of the photo and deep, chocolate colored eyes. The final picture was of a girl with dark green eyes and curly caramel colored hair. Coulson studied the pictures for a moments, then said to Skye,

"I'm assuming that this has some kind of significance, right?" Skye rolled her eyes.

"Don't you read Coulson?" She spun the laptop back around, "Each of these girls was snatched late at night and no ransom note or demands have been received. And get this," Skye looked up at her teammates, "they all are working in some kind of chemical research lab except the last one, and she's currently earning her degree in-" Skye frowned at the screen, "some kind of fancy science thing."

"So you're saying that we have a trail," said Coulson. Skye nodded.

"I can triangulate the locations the girls were taken from and determine a very wide radius of location."

"Do it," Coulson told her.

"On it, AC." Coulson looked up at Fitz.

"We're going to find her Fitz." The engineer nodded slowly, an incredibly small spark of hope deep in his eyes.

"I know sir."

* * *

The lab was empty, but Jemma could feel someone's watchful eyes on her back. She focused on the task in front of her. She knew exactly what they wanted her to do. It wouldn't be hardly any trouble for her either, to recreate the purple substance she had been studying on the Bus. It would be a piece of cake for her to key in the accelerated DNA that would create a viable variation of the Captain America serum. But she knew that she really shouldn't. _The trick is going to be making them think that I actually am working on it until...until what? _A little voice in the back of her head whispered. _Until Coulson and the team come for me, _she thought back determinedly. She squared her shoulders and grabbed one of the vials off the shelf. She snapped a pair of goggles over her eyes, painting what she hoped was a thoughtful expression on her face. She slid her arms into a lab coat and buttoned it up the front. Jemma contemplated the vial in front of her. _Helium, Atomic number of 2, located in the 1s orbital, 2 protons and 2 neutrons, atomic weight of 4.002602. _Simmons let the thoughts float through her head, focusing on them to calm her racing pulse. _Alright, _she thought, _time to put on a show. _She took the helium vial and moved over to the container of dry ice. Jemma pulled the bulky protective gloves over her hands and clamped tongs onto the neck of the vial. She lowered it into the dry ice. _That can lower the temperature enough to get the helium to condensate, _she thought, _that should look fairly productive. _She spun back to the shelves and racks of chemicals that she had available and her eyes fell on another container. _Mercury. Excellent. Atomic number of 80, atomic weight of 200.59, 121 neutrons, 80 protons, electron configuration [Xe] 4F14 5D10 6S2. _She took the Mercury and dipped out about two teaspoons of it, dropping it into a beaker. It flowed with the fairly thick viscosity that Mercury maintained at room temperature. Simmons set the beaker over a burner and quickly lit the flame beneath it. She carefully placed a filter over the top of the beaker to keep any fumes from spreading to the air she was breathing, and then turned her back on the Mercury. The next substances she claimed were fairly common: sugar, salt, and sodium pellets. She pulled down a stone and pestle and crushed five sugar cubes. She poured half of the salt container onto the stone, grinding it into the sugar. Leaving that mixture, she took the sodium pellets and dipped them into the dry ice for a few minutes each, leaving them hard and brittle. She tossed them in with the sugar and salt and ground them down very finely, leaving a whitish yellow powder behind. _I'm sure this all looks very sciency. _She laughed softly to herself. _At least I can have some fun with it._ She filled a vial with vinegar and poured the powder into it, humming as she stirred. Only Fitz knew that she only hummed when she was very nervous, having caught her at it one day in the lab. _Oh Fitz,_ she thought, torn between wanting him here with her and wanting him as far away as possible. _Coulson will get you out and you'll get back to Fitz, _she told herself firmly, but that didn't stop the ache that settled in her heart as she continued her masquerade around the lab.


End file.
